The Spark
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Ozai makes a (human) sacrifice to ensure that Azula is a powerful bender.


"She's a nonbender." The man declared.

Ozai scowled, were he the one holding the baby, he would have dropped it right then and there, but it was Ursa holding the useless, pitiful thing. It was too small and it cried too much as it kicked it's little legs.

"You bore me a nonbender!?" Ozai roared. "First you give me that." He pointed to Zuko, who held his thumb in his mouth and sucked upon it nervously.

"He's two years old, he just needs more time to…" Ursa started.

"And now you give me this." He glared at the infant squirming in Ursa's arms. Her cries only grew in volume with Ozai's flaring temper. "Just what the hell am I supposed to do with that?"

"She's your daughter, you're supposed to love her."

But when he looked at the baby, he could only loath it for being a second failure. "Take that one to the orphanage, we'll have another…"

Ursa clutched the babe protectively. The newborn cooed cheerfully, oblivious to her own fate. "We're not getting rid of her. That simple but furious "FINE!" from Ozai should have been the end of it. Yet the man raged and threatened for days; things that ranged from taking the baby to the orphanage in the middle of the night to killing her in various ways. He raged on and on until a letter arrived from Iroh and Lu Ten.

They were coming home and he had an idea.

**.oOo.**

Lu Ten awoke to a scratchy feeling. He could hear crying, loud wailing. It pierced the dark night with a chilling shrillness. He had every intention of finding the source of the noise, but, instead finding that his arms and legs were bound. "What the-"

"Don't make me get the gags, Lu Ten." He recognized the harsh rasp of Ozai's voice.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Ozai responded with a quite menacing chuckle. "I'm doing what needs to be done to keep this family from shame." He paused. "What kind of firelord can't produce firebending offspring."

The crying.

Was it the babe he and Iroh had come to visit and hold for the first time.

Ozai set the little thing down next to him. The poor baby was probably terrified. Lu Ten himself was growing panicked. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Everything." Ozai replied. "See, I need you."

Lu Ten swallowed, he hated the sound of that.

"It's a bit of a process, took some preparation." The man circled him, hands clasped behind his back. "Lots of reading and studying and I've found some interesting things. You see, chi can be harvested and transplanted at a price. Luckily, I won't be the one paying it." The man picked up a bowl with a single droplet of lava, a melted dragon scale, and a sprinkle of ash. "The potion is nearly complete, I only need one more ingredient."

Lu Ten heard the slid of metal, a dagger being unsheathed.

And here he thought that it would be the war that took his life. Instead, the dagger slipped into his belly. He wondered what would be come of the babe. Was he really going to make her drink lava. He couldn't imagine that even a small dot of it would be pleasant.

He pondering was cut short by a searing ripping.

"Apologies, nephew." Ozai offered dryly. "But the stomach is the source of fire chakra, so I will be taking yours."

Lu Ten could only offer up a wet gurgle in response. It escaped his lips in a froth of blood. A bubble of the stuff burst upon his lips.

It was torment, a person shouldn't be able to survive without a stomach. With horror, he came to find out that such a feat was possible so long is the person didn't bleed out. Of course, he would eventually, and the moment that he did couldn't come fast enough.

He pleaded with Agni and Raava and with whatever entity would listen to give him the sweet release of death. They left him clinging onto the miserable remaining fragments of his life for some time more.

Agni, he couldn't even move his arms to clutch his gaping midsection. He wanted to scream but he was in too much agony to do that.

Instead he watched Ozai mash his stomach into the bowl with the lava, until it was virtually liquified. Lu Ten knew that he should have averted his eyes right then. Instead he observed his uncle creep up to his own child with intentions sinister enough to make the devil cringe.

The man cradled the baby and tilted the bowl into her mouth, a little at a time. Between tips the poor thing wailed. A screeching, fearful cry that left Lu Ten feeling even more hollow. He tore his eyes away from the scene, praying for death to take him away from the infant's suffering.

**.oOo.**

"We'll tell them that he died in the war."

It was his father's voice. Really, Zuko knew that he ought not eavesdrop, his mother had taught him better. Yet, the day was the strangest one yet-and there had been a lot of odd ones since Lu Ten's disappearance. It started with him walking in on his uncle weeping uncontrollably and his mother eyeing his sister with fear and something else that he couldn't explain.

"Died in the war…" Ursa repeated with a bitter laugh.

"And as far as she will know, she was born with that spark in her eyes."

_Her_. She'd lost her gleeful baby coo.

She made Zuko uncomfortable. She never cried anymore.

**.oOo.**

A mid-air somersault created a pinwheel of blue fire. She accented it with a kick and a punch and then the flame died in Azula's palm. The exertion of a full day of moves of the same standard, left her tired and slightly winded. She dipped her head in a slight bow that was met by a series of slow claps from her father.

"Wonderful." He commented. "You're a true prodigy." He reminded her again.

"Thank you, father." Azula replied. "It isn't as hard as they say." Really, firebending came so naturally. Apparently, too naturally for the comfort of others. The look on her mother's face when her flames first went blue remained vivid in her mind. The way Zuko shied away.

Iroh though, seemed to hate her skills with the most venom. Perhaps the old man was Jealous. Jealous that she would surpass the dragon of the west. Envious that she was going to master lightningbending much earlier than he had.

His stare was hard and hateful as she made her first attempt at lightningbending. The sparks came naturally, Azula had expected as much. She smiled to herself as the lightning, though somewhat weak, hit the opposite wall. "I suppose that went well for my first time."

Ozai's lip curled up. He put a hand on her shoulder. "I had no doubts. You are a true firebender."


End file.
